City council OKs Brian Redd, mayor's pick for police chief
The big picture: Redd's arrival comes as Utah GOP leaders pressure the city for a new approach to homelessness.
State of play: During a council work session ahead of the vote, Redd called for an "empathetic and compassionate" policing approach and partnerships within the social services system to address root causes of crime.
What they're saying: "I think good ideas come from the ground up, so we want to create a culture where our officers are heard and listened to and involved in the decision-making process in the department," he said.
State of play: Redd, Mayor Erin Mendenhall's pick to replace former police chief Mike Brown, most recently led the Utah Department of Corrections.
Redd was appointed to the post by Gov. Spencer Cox in 2023.
He also worked for the Utah Department of Public Safety for about two decades.
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Axios
8 minutes ago
- Axios
6 states lead U.S. with most unauthorized immigrants: Pew
California and Texas are among the six states where the majority of the nation's record 14 million unauthorized immigrants live, though more are moving to other states, a new Pew study finds. The big picture: The states have consistently had the most unauthorized immigrants since at least 1980, but they are no longer the only draw as unauthorized immigrants have moved to other states amid economic transformation and new networks. Why it matters: The report highlights the historic rise in unauthorized immigrants during President Biden's first two years in office, fueling the backlash that helped Donald Trump's return to the White House as Latinos in South Texas began moving to the GOP. Polls showed that Latinos who said they support building a border wall and deporting all undocumented immigrants jumped by at least 10 points since 2021, after the significant increase in unauthorized immigrants began. By the numbers: California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois were home to nearly 8 million unauthorized immigrants in 2023, according to Pew Research Center estimates released Thursday. That's 56% of the total unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S, compared to 80% in 1990. The latest tally found that California led the nation with 2.3 million unauthorized immigrants, followed by Texas with 2.1 million — only a 200,000-person difference. That's a dramatic shift from 2017, when California had 1.2 million more. State of play: The U.S. unauthorized immigrant population is far less concentrated than in the past, growing in 32 states from 2021 to 2023, Pew found. The population shifts happened as worker shortages and growth continue in industries like construction, agriculture and oil and gas. Zoom in: Florida saw around 700,000 unauthorized immigrants during that two-year span, followed by Texas, with 450,000 more. Unauthorized immigrant populations grew by 75,000 or more in eight states — New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio. An Axios analysis found that Florida had the highest percentage of unauthorized immigrants among its total population, with 7.1%. Nevada was second with 6.9%, followed by Texas (6.7%) and New Jersey (6.5%). Zoom out: The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. rose to a record 14 million in 2023, sparked by migration from countries other than Mexico, the Pew analysis said. The increase was also driven by two consecutive years of record growth, according to the report. Economic and political upheaval in Africa, Asia, and Latin America — and the perception that President Biden's lifting of immigration barriers would make it easy to enter the U.S. — helped drive unprecedented migration, analysts say.
Politico
9 minutes ago
- Politico
Playbook PM: Texas nears approval on new maps
Presented by THE CATCH-UP ANYBODY HAVE A MAP? Texas' redistricting rodeo is hurtling toward the final buzzer today with Republicans in the Texas Senate set to greenlight the White House-backed redistricting plan that would create five new GOP congressional seats, after the state House rubber-stamped the effort yesterday.. This morning, members of the Texas Senate's Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting voted 5-3 to send the proposed maps for a final vote in the chamber. The state Senate is set to convene at 8 p.m. Eastern to take up the proposal and send it to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. Though the new maps have been fated to pass in the deep-red state, it's not all a wash for state Democrats. The group used their highly publicized two-week quorum break to spotlight the rare mid-decade redraw as a partisan power grab by Republicans. And though Abbott has promised legal punishments for the lawmakers who bucked against the special legislative session, Democrats have also threatened to challenge the new maps in court. And the map debate has spread out beyond the Lone Star State: INSIDE 1600 PENN: The White House's redistricting push is serving as a major test of President Donald Trump's grip on the Republican Party and whether his well-honed negotiating skills translate beyond the beltway, POLITICO's Lisa Kashinsky, Daniel Desrochers and Holly Otterbein report. 'The more-stick-than-carrot approach has delivered Trump major wins in Washington by helping him barrel through initial GOP resistance,' and now 'that machine is whirring into gear again.' HOOSIER DADDY: So far, the Hoosier State is proving to be the most significant challenge to Trump's pressure campaign, with Republicans 'resisting a more intensive — and public — push' to redraw state lines, our colleagues write. Though Republican Gov. Mike Braun remains undecided on whether to call a special session, the administration 'shows no signs of letting up' and is 'planning to court more than four dozen Indiana Republicans' at the White House next week. GOING TO CALIFORNIA: Golden State Democrats are gearing up to push their own redistricting effort forward today to counter Texas Republicans, creating five new seats for their party. State lawmakers gathered today to consider a referendum that would allow a special election on Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed maps and two related bills. But the Democrat-centric redistricting effort faces a less certain future in the Golden State, which requires that voters — not lawmakers — decide to overturn the current district lines. SHOWING UP IN THE SHOW-ME STATE: Missouri Republican Party Vice Chair Jennifer Bukowsky said proposed maps drawn in D.C. have been floating around among lawmakers and she 'expects a special session when district lines are decided by national Republicans,' The Missouri Independent's Rudi Keller reports. 'Republican members of the Missouri House have been told there will be two caucus meetings scheduled to coincide with the annual veto session, which starts Sept. 10,' with one meeting likely focused on redistricting. Trump is already counting Missouri in the win column. The president signaled on Truth Social this morning that Missouri Republicans are moving ahead with their redistricting gambit. 'The Great State of Missouri is now IN. I'm not surprised,' Trump wrote. 'I won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We're going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!' Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Have thoughts on the White House's redistricting campaign? Drop me a line at birvine@ 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: Russia overnight launched over 500 drones and 40 missiles in an aerial attack on Ukraine — marking one of the heaviest bombardments in recent weeks. Part of the attack focused on the U.S.-founded electronics manufacturer near the Ukrainian border, per Reuters' Dan Peleschuk and Anastasiia Malenko. 'One person was killed and 22 were wounded, most of them in the attack that damaged storage facilities at the electronics manufacturer in Ukraine's far-Western Zakarpattia region.' The Russian attack comes just days after Trump led a series of diplomatic meetings in an effort to negotiate a ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the attack on the American-owned business 'is very telling' of Russia's motives, urging Western allies to respond in a post on X. 'The Russians carried out this attack as if nothing has changed at all, as if there are no global efforts to stop this war. This requires a response,' Zelenskyy wrote. 'There is still no signal from Moscow that they truly intend to engage in substantive negotiations and end this war. Pressure is needed. Strong sanctions, strong tariffs.' The view from the Kremlin: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters today that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'has repeatedly said' he's prepared to meet with Zelenskyy, but stressed 'all issues that require consideration at the highest level will be well worked out' beforehand, Reuters reports. Lavrov also added that questions must be resolved about Zelenskyy's authority to officially sign a peace deal. 2. IMMIGRATION FILES: The Ugandan government has reached a temporary deal with the U.S. to take in so-called third-country deportees, per WaPo's Victoria Craw and Rael Ombuor. Ugandan Foreign Ministry's permanent secretary, Bagiire Vincent Waiswa posted on X that the country will accept: 'Third Country Nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.' It's unclear how many migrants will be accepted or when the deal will take effect. The announcement comes after a Ugandan senior official denied to Reuters reporting from CBS on Tuesday that the country had struck a deal, citing internal documents. And the huddled masses shift: A Pew Research Center analysis of Census data found that between January and June, the foreign-born population in the U.S. declined by nearly 1.5 million — the 'experts predict looming negative economic and demographic consequences for the United States if the trend persists,' NYT's Miriam Jordan reports. 3. NO PLACE LIKE HOME (RULE): Trump is planning to join law enforcement and National Guard troops on patrol tonight, 'the latest in a series of high-profile photo ops by the administration to broadcast the strength of its crackdown on the nation's capital,' POLITICO's Irie Sentner writes. 'I'm going to be going out tonight … with the police and with the military of course,' Trump told conservative radio host Todd Starnes this morning. A White House official said more details would 'be forthcoming.' The next phase: Trump may be eyeing another layer to his takeover of Washington and bypass the city's traditional process to transform the local judicial system, POLITICO's Daniel Barnes reports. Under D.C.'s Home Rule Act, 'the president is restricted to choosing from a roster of potential [D.C. judicial] candidates recommended by a seven-member panel known as the Judicial Nomination Commission.' But last week Trump 'indicated that senior Justice Department officials had already given him judicial recommendations for Washington's local courts, potentially bypassing the panel's selections.' Do you hear the people sing?: Washington is no stranger to large protests. But as Michael Schaffer writes in his latest Capital City column for POLITICO Mag, 'the nation's capital has been weirdly quiet' in response to Trump's police crackdown — and no one can seem to agree on why: 'Some cited the season … Others cited exhaustion and even fear,' while '[p]eople involved in planning protests against the takeover chalk some of it up to tactical choices.' 4. MAYBE THIS TIME: A New York appeals court tossed out New York AG's Letitia James' $500 million civil fraud case against the president's family business today — but the court declined to overturn James' case against Trump himself, POLITICO's Erica Orden reports. The verdict leaves the door open for Trump to 'seek to appeal the verdict to New York's highest court. And the three separate opinions issued Thursday by the appeals court revealed disagreement within the five-judge panel that one judge described as 'profound.'' What they said: 'While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants' business culture, the court's disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,' Judge Peter Moulton wrote. 5. ANOTHER HUNDRED PEOPLE: 'Trump's hometown train station renovation could be first fruits of South Korean trade deal,' by Just The News' Steven Richards and John Solomon: 'The South Korean government and its leading industry association have expressed interest in making significant investments in a complete renovation of New York City's Pennsylvania Station … The Korean government is prepared to invest $15 billion in the [a renovation] project and become the group's partner in constructing the new station and a new sports arena to replace Madison Square Garden.' 6. HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS: Tiffany Trump's husband, businessman Michael Boulos, and his family have reaped some dubious financial gains from marrying into the Trump dynasty, according to a new NYT investigation. Boulos was said to have overcharged his future brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, $2.5 million dollars for a yacht while his family's brokerage firm 'worked to conceal the true price from him.' Meanwhile, Boulos' cousin also negotiated with a Saudi businessman to get him access to Trump during his wedding: 'Everyone involved denies wrongdoing, and both deals went bad. … But Mr. Boulos received about $300,000 from the yacht sale, his cousin says, and $100,000 from the Saudi businessman.' 7. NEW YORK, NEW YORK: The former top aide to NYC Mayor Eric Adams is now facing four separate counts of bribery from the Manhattan DA's office, POLITICO's Jeff Coltin reports. Adam's former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, allegedly 'overrode other City officials' expertise and decision making to ensure that certain required actions were accomplished for the benefit of her co-conspirators,' according to a summary of the indictments. 'Jesse Hamilton, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, is being charged with Lewis-Martin in one case where the pair is accused of promoting a real estate developer's projects in exchange for more than $5,000 worth of home renovations.' 8. OLD FRIENDS: The Texas AG's office may be getting a new sheriff in town. After weeks of rumors, four-term Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) officially launched an attorney general campaign today, The Texan's Brad Johnson reports. Roy, a former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and House Freedom Caucus member, is aiming to replace AG Ken Paxton — who remains locked in a heated GOP primary against Sen. John Cornyn. Roy has had a rocky relationship with Paxton for years, calling for him to step down in 2020 during a federal investigation and subsequent impeachment effort. Roy's reputation as a fiery conservative could certainly help him as he joins a busy field that already includes GOP state Sens. Mayes Middleton and Joan Huffman, and former DOJ appointee Aaron Reitz. '[R]epresentatives should not be permanent,' Roy said in a release. 'And my experience watching Texans unite in response to the devastating Hill Country floods made clear that I want to come home. I want to take my experience in Congress, as a federal prosecutor, and as First Assistant Attorney General to fight for Texas from Texas.' Watch his launch video 9. ME AND THE SKY: Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) are launching an official investigation into Paramount's $7 billion merger with fellow media conglomerate Skydance, The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo scoops. The pair sent a 'letter to Paramount leadership on Wednesday demanding documents, communications and detailed answers' on the merger and noted concerns about 'troubling' statements from Trump regarding a possible financial agreement. 'Paramount has denied any such agreement with Trump exists and insisted its settlement with the president only includes a $16 million payment to his foundation, which was announced as the deal was struck.' TALK OF THE TOWN SPOTTED: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jeanine Pirro having lunch at The Hamilton yesterday. Pic Matt and Ginger Gaetz welcomed a son, Luckey Louis Gaetz. AND THE AWARD GOES TO — The Congressional Management Foundation announced winners of the 2025 Democracy Awards, including multiple categories honoring one Republican and one Democratic congressional office as well as chiefs of staff. Honorees for excellence in congressional management include Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and Nikki Budzinski's (D-Ill.) offices. Honorees for chief of staff of the year include J.T. Jezierski of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito's ( office, Tricia Russell of Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) office, Chris Crawford of Rep. Buddy Carter's (R-Ga.) office and Mitchell Rivard of Rep. Jason Crow's (D-Colo.) office. Winners will be formally recognized at the 2025 Democracy Awards Ceremony on Sept. 18. See the full list of awardees Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath
Vox
9 minutes ago
- Vox
Stephen Miller is undercutting Trump's war on democracy
is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy,, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here. In the public imagination, Stephen Miller is the dark heart of the Trump administration — a pulsing mass of anti-immigrant hatred behind its most aggressively authoritarian moves. But what if there's a different story to be told — that Stephen Miller's obsession with deportations isn't helping President Donald Trump secure control over the country, but actively undermining it? Take Trump's militarization of Washington, DC, as an example. The move is puzzling, in that it's authoritarian in principle but ineffective in execution. While seemingly designed to expand Trump's ability to control the American public, the on-the-ground deployments are doing nothing to repress protest — in fact, they're assuredly generating far more resistance than they're suppressing. So what's going on? The best answer I've found is a recent piece from Dara Lind, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council (and Vox alum). Looking granularly at the details of the operations in DC, Lind found they heavily focused on immigration enforcement — things like forcing DC police to cooperate with ICE and setting up checkpoints to try and trap people they think look like migrants. 'Every day since the federal takeover, DC residents have posted videos of federal agents — often with a mix of uniforms or no official badges at all — in patrols, staffing checkpoints, or going after people. And the people they've been going after have largely been (apparent) immigrants,' Lind writes. (Her findings are supported by recent on-the-ground reporting from the Wall Street Journal.) This is, I think, a viciously cruel policy (not to mention a waste of federal resources). But it is also a very ineffective policy when it comes to consolidating authoritarian control. Undocumented migrants do not vote, but the administration's ceaseless efforts to deport them en masse is galvanizing street protests and tanking GOP support among Latino voters. This is Miller's influence on policy made manifest: obsessed with deportations, he has done everything he can to turn the federal government into a deportation machine. And it's actually hurting the overall Trumpist cause. Stephen Miller is doing authoritarianism wrong I wrote a book about how democracies become autocracies. One of my central findings is that, for would-be autocrats, it is exceptionally important to maintain democratic appearances. If you are too openly authoritarian before consolidating enough power, you're likely to galvanize a potent wave of popular resistance. The paradigmatic recent example is South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's attempted power grab in December. Instead of subtly chipping away at Korean democracy, Yoon simply declared martial law overnight and tried to arrest opposition leaders. The result was an immediate street uprising and a parliamentary vote nullifying the martial law declaration. Yoon was impeached and is currently on trial for insurrection, a crime punishable by life imprisonment or death. The paradigmatic counter-case is Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. After winning power in 2010, Orbán and his Fidesz party made a blizzard of confusing changes to Hungarian law designed to make elections less competitive and bring the courts to heel. They then spent years expanding their power, using financial and regulatory pressures to take control over the press and civil society. Today, the electoral deck is so stacked in the ruling party's favor that even a wildly popular opposition leader may not be able to win the 2026 elections. Yoon and Orbán represent poles we can use to evaluate the Trump administration's authoritarian effectiveness. The more Trump acts like Yoon, attempting to nakedly assert the powers of a police-state ruler in a democracy, the more likely he is to generate meaningful pushback. The more he acts like Orbán, hiding behind a legalistic veneer, the more insidious the threat becomes. By this metric, the most dangerous developments of the Trump administration have been his attacks on universities, his successful shakedown of CBS, his push to get Republican states to do pre-midterm gerrymandering, and the Supreme Court's willingness to bless his mass firings of federal employees (at least temporarily). All of those developments tangibly affect American democracy. Each chips away at a key institution — civil society, the free press, fair elections, and limits on executive power — that prevent authoritarian consolidation. Each moves Trump meaningfully closer toward building an Orbán-style regime (even if the United States is still pretty far off from the terminus). But the militarized immigration crackdown championed by Miller doesn't advance that goal in any meaningful way. It combines the optics of authoritarianism — sending masked, unidentified armed men into the streets of American cities — with a lack of actual repressive capacity. Look, for example, at this recent video of DC residents (in my old neighborhood) chasing off unidentified federal agents. The feds are armed and masked, but the protesters are totally fearless. Why? Because unlike an outright authoritarian state, where demonstrators are repressed with deadly force, Trump's guys aren't authorized to fire indiscriminately on crowds. Their show of force is just that — a show. And people on the ground, in DC and LA before it, are calling their bluff. Miller's crackdown is good at two things: deporting undocumented people and terrorizing the communities they live in. I find this abhorrent: he is hurting innocent people, and the US writ large, for no good reason. But the fact that Miller's policy is morally terrible does not mean it is contributing to Trump's broader authoritarian project. In fact, its naked cruelty and thuggishness are the best reasons to think it's counterproductive. Back in November 2019, Stephen Miller said in a meeting that deporting immigrants was his reason for living. 'This is all I care about,' he said, per the New Yorker. 'I don't have a family. I don't have anything else. This is my life.' That same month, Miller got engaged to his now-wife Katie. The level of monomania on display there, an obsession with immigration so total that it erased his own fiancée, has been even more vividly on display in this administration — where he has personally redirected ICE officers responsible for disrupting organized crime to arresting random construction workers at Home Depot. I don't think Miller is thinking carefully about whether his deportation campaign is contributing to Trump's authoritarian consolidation of power. I think he just wants to deport people, and the consequences be damned. Mostly, those consequences are horrific. But if there's any silver lining, it's this: Miller is helping awaken millions of Americans to the true nature of their current government.
